I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Luke 14-16.

    As I was reading the passage today and came to the parable of the great feast I saw it in a completely different light. Here in Luke this parable immediately follows Jesus’ teaching about throwing parties for those who cannot throw parties to invite you to in return. I think that because it is similar to the parable of the wedding feast in Matthew we tend to read some of the meaning of that parable into this one. In light of the previous few verses, and other teachings of Jesus presented by Luke, it strikes me that we receive our invitations to God’s great feast when we have opportunities to help others. How often do we pass on the opportunity to help those in need because we are busy with something else? More importantly, do we recognize the blessings we are foregoing when we do so? One of the things we often miss when we read the Gospels is that central to Jesus’ teachings was the idea that the reward for doing good was doing good. Or to phrase that another way, doing good is a blessing in and of itself.

    I am struggling to get my mind around all of my thoughts concerning the impetus we should have to bring a lost soul to God. The message contained here is why I am so hesitant to suggest that missionaries who spend years in a location with few, if any, converts should pull up stakes and find a new location for their mission. We should expend whatever resources necessary to bring to God those lost souls we encounter, and we should make life choices so that we encounter lost souls. However, in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus Jesus points out that there is a limit to what tactics are worth using. When the rich man asked Abraham to send Lazarus back to warn his brothers, Jesus tells us that Abraham replied that if they did not believe Moses and the prophets they would not believe someone returning from the dead. The lesson here is that those who demand proof of God’s existence will not accept any proof with which they are presented. Those who do not want to believe will find a reason to not believe.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Luke 12-13.

    Jesus’ teachings in today’s passage are all closely related to each other. I may not touch on all of them, but I believe the theme is there on those as well. The passage starts out by warning us to be more afraid of God, who destroy our very selves, than of men, who, no matter how powerful, can only destroy our bodies. Yet, from there He points out that we are valuable to God, who cares about the lives of mere sparrows (which can be bought in numbers for mere pennies).

I am going to step away from my main theme to say something about blasphemy. It is one thing to deny that some particular person is a person of God, even if that person is Jesus Himself. However, calling good evil, and evil good is another matter entirely. When you start to call that which is clearly evil a good thing you begin moving into territory from which there is no return. I struggle with writing this in a way does not leave room for misinterpretation, but I have seen those who once knew the truth deny it in such a way that it is clear they will never accept it again.

    Having spoken about how much God values each individual one of us, Jesus goes on to tell a parable about a man who chose to expand how much wealth he could store. Jesus uses that parable as a jumping off point to advise us not to worry about how much wealth we have, to not even worry about whether we have enough for our next meal, to pay for a roof over our heads, or clothes to wear. Instead of saving our wealth we should invest it in doing good for others. By doing so we will be saving up heavenly wealth where it cannot be lost or stolen. God will provide for our needs, so we need not worry about how they will be met.

    The parable about the fig tree Jesus tells a short time later fits right in with this theme. God is looking for us to bear the fruit of our faith. In many ways this is an explanation about how to deal with feelings of depression and uselessness. It is God’s desire for everyone to come to Him, but His patience has limits. Our time to serve God will run out eventually. We need to take advantage of the opportunities to do good which present themselves to us because they may be the last that we will have.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Luke 10-11.

    This is the only place in the New Testament where we get an idea of the number of people who were following Jesus on a regular basis. Here Jesus chose 72 (or perhaps only 70, some manuscripts have the smaller number) out of a larger group of followers for a special mission. Jesus gave similar instructions previously when He sent out just the Twelve, but He goes into more detail here (or, at least, Luke recounts more detail here). I think we should take note that Jesus instructed the 72 not to spend time in towns which did not welcome them. This teaching is definitely one we should keep in mind when missionaries go forth to preach the Gospel, but I am hesitant to make too much of it because of the stories I have heard and read of missionaries who spent years with little to show for it, where suddenly something changed and the floodgates opened and people began to accept the message.

    The story of the Good Samaritan and Jesus’ teaching on prayer are important to read, but I am going to finish up by talking about Jesus’ criticism of religious teachers. We should interpret this passage in light of the story of the Good Samaritan a few verse earlier. For that matter, we should interpret this in light of the other things in between that story and this account. There are at least two aspects of Jesu’s condemnation of the religious teachers. First He condemns them for showy acts of righteousness performed for public acclaim. They did things which could be measured and which would cause others to be praise them and hold them up for acclamation. On the other hand, they could not be bothered with actions which, while they would help others, would not benefit themselves. The second aspect concerned identifying sins without taking any action to help the individual overcome the sin. An example I would give of this sort of behavior would be the anti-prostitution crusader who spends lots of time in front of the camera declaring how terrible prostitution is without spending any time helping those who practice prostitution find another way to support themselves.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Luke 6-7.

    Luke’s take on the Beatitudes is slightly different from Matthew’s. The two do not conflict, but they do have a different emphasis. The Beatitudes in Matthew focus more on what you should do, while those in Luke focus more on your attitude toward the circumstances you find yourself in. I like comparing verses 22-23 with verse 25. This runs exactly counter to our human tendency. We want to be loved and exalted by the “beautiful people” and by the crowds, but Jesus warns us that they do not like the people who are righteous and tell them God’s truth. The crowds and the “beautiful people” love those who lie to them and tell them what they want to hear. If you are popular and well-liked you need to look closely at what you are doing and what you are saying because being popular and well-liked may be a sign that you are not doing or saying what God wants you to do or say.

    Of course, there is a qualifier on this. Jesus was popular for a while and sometimes people will dislike you because you are a bad person. Fortunately, a few verses later, Jesus gives us some guidance on how to determine what we are doing. Jesus tells us to focus on fixing what is wrong with ourselves before worrying about what is wrong with someone else. He even tells us how to know if we have gotten it right. The way to judge ourselves is to judge our actions. If we are a good person, we will do good things. If we are an evil person, we will do evil things. This really works better than it seems at first. We can justify to ourselves doing evil things, but we still usually know that they are evil. And even there, Jesus gives us a tool for recognizing evil acts, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” If you would not want someone to do something to you, do not do that something to someone else.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Luke 4-5.

    Luke’s account of Jesus’ temptations in the wilderness is very similar to Matthew’s, but the focus is slightly different. Here the temptation is to gather power for oneself. In the first temptation, Jesus is tempted to use His power to satisfy all of His physical needs and wants. In the second, Jesus is tempted to gain political power by putting Himself into the service of evil. In the third temptation, Jesus is tempted to harness the religious establishment to become famous. Each of them hints at justifications for doing it that way, but, ultimately, they are each about satisfying selfish desires.

    When Jesus spoke at the synagogue in Nazareth, the people were impressed by His words, but expected some kind of special consideration from Him because He grew up in Nazareth. I never quite know what to make of this story because it always seems like Jesus calls the people out before they have done anything to be called out over. However, today I noticed a similarity between what Jesus said in Nazareth to what He said to those who chided Him for feasting with Levi’s friends. In both cases, Jesus points out that you do not conduct outreach among those who are already in. If we only spend our time among those who are already believers, those who do not believe will never hear the message.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Luke 2-3.

    The first thing that occurred to me when I finished reading today’s passage was that Luke’s source for these stories had to be Mary. Thinking about that, these are the sorts of stories a mother would remember about her son. We have a story about the stressful times right after the child’s birth (“no lodging available”), another about the amazing joy of having a new child (the story of the shepherds). There are stories about memorable things that happened with the child while he was very young (the dedication at the Temple, Simeon and Anna). Finally, there is a story about the child starting to exert his independence, demonstrating what kind of man he would become (staying behind at the Temple). My Mom tells stories with similar themes about my childhood and that of my older siblings, none of them are nearly as momentous as those recounted here. I remember my Mom telling a story about where they lived when my oldest sister was born. I remember my Mom telling a story about my one older brother banging his head against the wall whenever he was in the crib. I remember her telling other stories about my siblings. The thing is, I remember her telling the stories, but I don’t remember the details. However, my mother does, just as Mary remembered the details in these stories.

    Luke introduces the beginning of Jesus’ ministry with John the Baptist. The point of John’s ministry was that it being a descendant of Abraham was not enough to shield them from God’s judgment. John preached that God’s judgment was coming. That same message needs to be preached today. When God’s judgment comes, it is not going to be enough to go to Church every Sunday. It is not enough to not be a bad person. It is not enough to say that you are sorry for the bad things you have done. You need to take actions which demonstrate that you have changed, give to the poor, feed the hungry, stop using your power to abuse those over whom you have power. All of this was just the start. John preached that there was someone coming soon who would divide those who really wanted to serve God from those who just wanted to avoid God’s judgment.